


Beckoning Unreasonable Fury

by Taste_of_Suburbia



Series: an unquiet mind [19]
Category: From Paris with Love (2010)
Genre: Alternate Reality, Alternate Universe - Creatures & Monsters, Alternate Universe - Supernatural Hunters, Angst, Betrayal, Choices, Dark fic, Established Relationship, Friends to Enemies, Guilt, Heavy Angst, Hunters & Hunting, M/M, Murder, Partners to Lovers, Prophetic Visions, Regret, Romance, Tragedy, Trope Bingo Round 14
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-22
Updated: 2020-02-22
Packaged: 2021-02-22 09:50:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 981
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22847629
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Taste_of_Suburbia/pseuds/Taste_of_Suburbia
Summary: Best to play by the universe’s rules, no matter the cost.
Relationships: James Reece/Charlie Wax
Series: an unquiet mind [19]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1400899
Collections: Trope Bingo: Round Fourteen





	Beckoning Unreasonable Fury

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [Trope Bingo](https://immolate-the-silence.dreamwidth.org/47728.html) for the prompt Dark Fic. This is a darker AU ending of [Lead Us to Destructive Behavior](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22846888). 
> 
> **Back story:** This is a sequel to [All These Punishments](https://archiveofourown.org/works/20818400) and [Lead Us to Destructive Behavior](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22846888), and I would definitely read the last work before reading this piece, since this is an AU where Wax doesn’t stay his hand. 
> 
> Recounting this mini-series within my main series: Reece has a simple, harmless thought to ask for his prophetic visions to go away. The universe, fate, what have you gives him what he wants, but also sticks him in a time loop where he has to watch Wax die in hundreds of gruesome ways. Eventually, the time loop stops but Reece starts having visions again, except that in this alternate reality psychics have long since been hunted down by the very agency he works for. Wax finds out that his partner is not the same partner he’s known and has to make a difficult decision. This part is him making the alternate choice. 
> 
> **Miniseries [part 3]:** All these punishments lead us to destructive behavior, beckoning unreasonable fury, staying our hand from madness so we can fight another season and poison the source
> 
> **Series:** an unquiet mind
> 
> **Soundtrack:** Lyrics are from Brand New’s ‘Out of Mana’

_~Did we build Babel together_

_Jibber jabber, changing colors_

_Aliens talking to airplanes_

_Every time the place is the same_

_Hope we can do this forever~_

* * *

He didn’t know what had made him bring it up: the idea that they could run.

It was impractical, laughable, delusional. There was nowhere they could go where the agency wouldn’t find them, no river they could cross or mountain they could climb or dark tunnel they could crawl under where they would be free. Moreover, Wax trusted the agency in  _all_ things, in all their often elusive ways, and there was absolutely no reason for him to doubt them now. 

This was a test, had to be because otherwise it never would have happened.

He offered it regardless. Reece had spoken often of the desire to travel, to see new places and  _really_ live. It was a way to pull him in, nothing more, the proof to give Reece that he had won Wax over. 

So he let Reece ramble and dream, rattling off names of ruins and jungles and temples, detailing vast plains and stretches of desert and endless oceans and fog-shrouded rolling hills as if he’d already been to all those places.

Wax could almost taste it himself, almost  _go_ there, almost say to hell with it and  _run_ , staying off the grid, living some secret, dangerous life. It wasn’t a far stretch from what he was living now and yet it was: there would be no higher calling, no authority to answer to, no sense of purpose dependent upon and yet entirely distinct from him. 

It would be foolishness, heresy, blasphemy and it wouldn’t last long.

The real Reece never would have asked him of such a thing.

Then again, if he had the  _true_ Reece right now he wouldn’t be in this position. 

Wax shuddered, dwelling on what Reece had said and repeating it back to himself, pretending a conversation with him and yet not daring to bring it to life.  _You said it yourself, right? Eventually these visions will kill you, physically or mentally. They’ll put you into a situation you can’t get yourself out of, or they’ll break your mind down piece by piece until it’s barely functioning anymore. You’ve said it yourself, Reece. You’re looking for a way out._

“And I was thinking about Italy, Wax. Maybe even just for a weekend.”

Wax swallowed down the bile in his throat. This wasn’t  _his_ Reece; his Reece didn’t have visions and he had never had this blind faith in Wax either. Sure, they trusted each other but trust wasn’t absolute certainty. It wasn’t the be all and end all. It didn’t determine their relationship nor did it fuel their decisions. They were a team but they weren’t seamless. They were in sync but they weren’t effortlessly devoted. “Pizza and gelato, huh? Sounds real good, Reece cup.” 

There was a time when they fit together so  _well_ , well  _enough_ , when they didn’t have to worry about whatever the other was thinking or doing. Where striving for perfection wasn’t an ideal. Where they could work a case at separate angles and come out on the other side nearly on the same page. 

There was a time when Reece didn’t have the same burdens he did now, when he was as nature intended and not  _this._

The knife fit well in the palm of his hand, too well, and he kept it hidden even though Reece was turned away from him, distracted in having already thought of a way out, a destination to run to. Reece had already called him out on it a few minutes ago, voice shaking more from stress than actual fear, but Wax prayed he had forgotten about it already. It wasn’t the last thing about him he wanted Reece to remember.

Wax had been suddenly gifted this new version of his lover, with abilities he  _shouldn’t_ have and could get away with even less, only to wrench him away again, only to force Wax to face himself.

Who he was, all the things he’d done, all the things he couldn’t have.

All the feats he still had yet to commit.

He thought about plunging the knife into his own heart instead, but it was clear that this world was only set to damn them.  _Best to play by their rules. Best to remember that this isn’t your Reece and that these visions... they can’t come to fruition..._

The knife was warm and wet and writhing between his palms, the heavy thundering of his heart slowing, the air in his lungs expanding.

_You can bring my Reece back now,_ he reasoned. _Perfect and vision-less._

The unseeing eyes ceased to blink up at him in loving clarity, eyes that were colder still than the steel cutting into his own skin. The sun was blinding at his back even in the almost shade, full to  _brimming_ of merciless accusation, and all the panic he was forced to swallow down couldn’t have possibly ached less then swallowing shards of glass, each one a perfect piece of his Reece’s misery and suffering and loyalty. 

Even with the agency’s hands still on his, having guided him to completion and even still pointing its cruelest weapon at its newest lifeless victim, whispering rewards in his ear, reassuring Wax of all the pain he had spared from his once partner and from the world and from  _himself_ , those words, those  _useless_ pleas reeked of nothing but faithless deception and love sacrificed and the very basest form of betrayal. 

_What have I done?_

_Who have I become?_

_Have I put myself, willingly, in this_ hell _?_

* * *

_~Don’t black out, or we’ll back down_

_I want you to know, if you feel ready to go_

_I can read the rest to myself, hell is digital_

_I’m burnt to little bits_

_I’m psycho, can you know this?~_

* * *

**FIN**


End file.
